Streblidae flies are specialised parasites of bat hosts, mainly phyllostomids. There is a high richness of streblids in the savannah-like Cerrado region; however, there is little quantitative data available in parasitological indices. Here, we describe the component community, prevalence and intensity of a streblid infestation on a phyllostomid bat assemblage in Serra da Bodoquena, a Cerrado region in Southwest Brazil. We conducted surveys by capturing and inspecting bat hosts during the seven-month period between October 2004-December 2005. All the ectoparasites found on the bats were collected in the field and then counted and identified in the laboratory. We captured 327 bats belonging to 13 species, of which eight species were parasitized by 17 species of streblids. Carollia perspicillata and Glossophaga soricina were infested with seven streblid species, whereas the other bat species were infested with four or fewer streblid species. Megistopoda proxima and Aspidoptera falcata flies were found on Sturnira lilium, and Trichobius joblingi was the most prevalent fly on C. perspicillata. Megistopoda aranea and Aspidoptera phyllostomatis were highly prevalent and had a high intensity of infestation on Artibeus planirostris. Overall comparisons of the available data suggest that the component communities of streblids vary more between the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest phytogeographical regions than between localities within the same phytogeographical region

RESUMO Uma listagem das espécies de Hippoboscidae, Nycteribiidae e Streblidae, seus hospedeiros e localidades no estado de Mato Grosso do Sul, baseada em dados de literatura e no acervo de coleções científicas, é apresentada. Cinquenta e três espécies são registradas, sendo Xenotrichobius noctilionis Wenzel, 1976 reportada pela primeira vez no Brasil.

Aim Determine the relative influence of geographical distance, environmental differences, and host species composition on the similarity of bat fly species composition. Location Neotropics. Taxon Bats (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) and bat flies (Diptera: Streblidae). Methods Abundance data on bats and ectoparasites were obtained from published studies. The relative influences of environmental variation (annual precipitation, temperature seasonality, elevation, and NDVI), host species composition, and geographic distance on parasite community composition were analysed with Generalized Dissimilarity Modelling and variance partitioning. Additionally, we evaluated the influence of these environmental variables and geographic distance on host species composition. Results Our model explains 45.3% of the variance in the dissimilarity of bat fly species. Host species composition had the most significant influence on bat fly species composition across communities, followed by environmental effects. Variance partitioning showed that host species composition explained 14.9% and environmental characteristics explained 10.3% of the variance in bat fly species dissimilarity. Geographical distance alone had a negligible effect as it accounted for only 0.007% of the variance in bat fly species composition. Host species composition was mainly influenced by geographic distance (18.0%) and secondarily by environmental variables (9.8%). The most important environmental variables influencing parasite and host species composition were annual precipitation and temperature seasonality, respectively. Main Conclusions The lack of relationship between geographical distance and bat fly species composition may reflect either the high mobility or the high dispersal capacity of bat flies, or a combination of these. Alternatively, it could reflect a taxonomic artefact. Environmental differences seem to directly affect bat flies, as opposed to affecting them indirectly through their impact on the hosts. Our results support the fundamental role that host species composition plays in determining the species composition of highly host‐specific parasites. However, we argue that host specificity is not the only trait impacting ectoparasite species composition.

Abstract. Measures of traits are the basis of functional biological diversity. Numerous works consider mean species-level measures of traits while ignoring individual variance within species. However, there is a large amount of variation within species and it is increasingly apparent that it is important to consider trait variation not only between species, but also within species. Mammals are an interesting group for investigating trait-based approaches because they play diverse and important ecological functions (e.g., pollination, seed dispersal, predation, grazing) that are correlated with functional traits. Here we compile a data set comprising morphological and life history information of 279 mammal species from 39,850 individuals of 388 populations ranging from À5.83 to À29.75 decimal degrees of latitude and À34.82 to À56.73 decimal degrees of longitude in the Atlantic forest of South America. We present trait information from 16,840 individuals of 181 species of non-volant mammals (Rodentia, Didelphimorphia, Carnivora, Primates, Cingulata, Artiodactyla, Pilosa, Lagomorpha, Perissodactyla) and from 23,010 individuals of 98 species of volant mammals (Chiroptera). The traits reported include body mass, age, sex, reproductive stage, as well as the geographic coordinates of sampling for all taxa. Moreover, we gathered information on forearm length for bats and body length and tail length for rodents and marsupials. No copyright restrictions are associated with the use of this data set. Please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us of how they are using the data.